Gary sent in a couple of link. At https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/the-oldest-black-hole-is-baffling-scientists/ar-AA1n8Ylb … which is another take on the James Webb Space Telescope spotting what is thought to be a massive black hole. It was dated via red shift to 13 billion years ago. This date was too embarrassing for the Big Bang lobby and was subsequently scaled back.
Gary also sent in another link, https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientists-uncover-hidden-continents.html … which involves waves within the Mantle causing continental crust to rise – by over a kilometre. In other words, vertical uplift of stable parts of continental plates. These are known as cratons in geological speak. It seems the ups and downs of the crust in regions far away from plate boundaries has been a problem – mostly unstated as far as Joe Public is concerned. Hence, a new idea to explain how the crust goes up and down contrary to Plate Tectonics theory. These rises are also referred to as plateaus in the article – and we have pictures of one in South Africa. Modelling and simulations is used by the researchers.
When I first read the headline I thought – vindication for Steve Mitchell and his idea of sea level rise in the post Roman era in Britain as a result of the land going down – and later, going up. Both points of view involve isostasy. This is of course the mainstream view as well – but then isostasy is just a word and not a theory in of itself. Mitchell claimed sea level rise, usuually attributed to the end of the Roman warm period, seems to have led to flooding of big river valleys, such as the Trent, and Thames, and an extension of lochs and lakes and loughs. It also affected regions on the other side of the North Sea, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, and the coastline of western Germany etc. He gave a talk at the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill as well as writing an article in an SIS journal, which was very popular at one time. However, as an archaeologist he kept within the parameters of mainstream thinking and this involved a sea level curve, going up and down over several thousand years of the Holocene. In other words, it happened on several occasions, the post Roman period being one of them. He had photographs of Scottish sites that showed how sea level rise had left stranded churches that had once been located on the coast, and other such buildings. In contrast, other researchers, such as Basil Cracknell, reporting on similar phenomena, put it down to the Roman Warm Period melting glaciers on mountains,. such as the Alps, and presumably ice sheets on Greenland etc. That is basically adhering to the mainstream explanation of how sea level rise down as a result of global warming. In order to show the extent of the rise Mitchell used the Thames as a model. The Thames tidal reach in the 6th century AD got almost as far as Maidenhead – quite a few miles upriver from where it reaches in the modern world, Teddington Lock in the London suburbs. At the time they had been digging out the Eton Rowing Lake which was initially used for the Olympic Games, and they found a trading site – far from the river bank as it was in the 20th century AD. Boats were able to get as far as the tidal reach, unload their cargoes, and when the tide turned once again, they were able to sail back down the Thames to London and all points outwards. So, the sea can rise – and it can fall back. Whether that is down to melting glaciers, a sea level curve of some kind, or the land going up and down, is the choice we have at the moment. Geologists know all about isostasy – crust bouncing back after being released of a capping of ice, which may apply to Scotland but hardly to southern England. You can purchase a copy of Steve Mitchell’s article, and the journal issue, on our web site. Cracknell makes the point the Thames shoreline flooded as early as the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, 300 years prior to Mitchell – although his map of flooded areas of Britain represents the widest extent which was probably in the 5th or 6th centuries. Another point is that during cold periods, such as the post Roman era, excessive rain can cause flooding almost anywhere. The rise is the Thames, and expansion of marshland, caused the Romans to re-route Watling Street. Modern global warming doesn’t seem to involve anything like this – which might be telling us something.